Chapter 10 host no art

In June 1996, I interviewed Mr. Walter Cronkite in New York.His easy-going attitude just matches his simple and elegant study room, revealing a real energy.This is an eighty-year-old man with white beard and hair. Among the facial features, the big nose is the most distinctive feature. When he was young, he was considered ugly because of this.However, over the past half a century, people got used to seeing him and found him kind, so they affectionately called him "Uncle Walter". Almost everyone in the TV circle has heard of his name.For nineteen years from the early 1960s to the early 1980s, he has been the chief news anchor of CBS (CBS), anchoring evening news and special report programs, and has maintained a high profile for nearly two decades. The myth of ratings, it can be said that no other TV presenter at the same time can compare with him.His program accompanied Americans through the most turbulent era: from the raging black civil rights movement to the feminist movement sweeping across the United States, from the crazy rock music boom to the generation of hippies who were blinded by everything, from the Vietnam War to the Cuban Missile Crisis, from President Kennedy was assassinated and the Apollo spacecraft landed on the moon. The inherent social order and moral concepts in the United States were shaken, divided, and disintegrated. People were excited, irritable, and uneasy, and felt unprecedentedly confused about the future.But at this time, Cronkite, the plain-looking, deep-voiced news host with a big nose, won the universal love of the people with his upright personality charm and rigorous and objective professional quality, and became the public's favorite in the era of doubting everything. trusted character.So much so that when he sent a report from the Vietnam front, saying that the Vietnam War was an unwinnable war, President Johnson sighed sadly: "If I lose Cronkite, I will lose the entire United States."

His professionalism is also widely praised.He has successfully reported on the Apollo lunar spacecraft several times, and the longest one worked continuously for more than 30 hours.In order not to speak layman's terms, but to introduce the difficult knowledge of spaceflight to ordinary TV audiences, he has studied a large number of professional books in this field.Its in-depth reporting has experts marveling at its accuracy.And when the moment of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon finally came, he said only one sentence: "Oh, my God!" Cronkite's almost academic devotion to what he reported and his unadorned plebeian sensibilities were his charms, and he did it so naturally that he never even "designed it." ".

Facing this legendary American colleague who is more than 50 years older than me, I asked: "If you choose one of the two titles of 'host' and 'reporter', what do you want others to call you?" ?” He replied without hesitation: "Reporter. Of course it is a reporter." He went on to say: "The host is a very vague concept. Some of them are just good announcers—of course, broadcasting itself is also a respectable profession, but they did not participate in the interview and production of the program. And the 'reporter', It clearly defines the nature of my profession."

Of course, the hosts of some popular programs in the United States do not face the same choice of professional titles as Mr. Cronkite. Take Ms. Oprah Winferry, the top host of talk shows (also known as talk shows), as an example, although In the early days, she worked as a reporter for several years, but during her more than 20 years of TV career, she mainly hosted talk shows in the studio, so it can be said that she parted ways with the reporter profession.There are more than 30 talk shows in the United States, most of which are broadcast five times a week, so the competition is very fierce both in terms of program quantity and quality.And Oprah has become the number one in the past 20 years, becoming the middle-aged earner with the highest income in American television and literary circles. Taking 1995 as an example, it reached 170 million US dollars.What is the basis of her success?Is it her appearance?She is a black woman in her forties, with a medium build and an ordinary appearance. She once weighed two hundred pounds (about ninety kilograms); did she receive any professional training as a host?She only had two years of drama in college and started working before she graduated.I watched her show repeatedly, and felt that the secret of her success is actually very simple, that is to communicate with the audience sincerely, to open up her heart, and at the same time experience the pain and joy of others.In a discussion about the rape of American girls, she actually confessed her personal experience of being raped when she was fifteen years old.How can such frankness and sincerity not touch the hearts of the audience?She once summed up her successful experience in two words: "Share".

While at Columbia University I majored in International Communications. As one of the famous Ivy League schools, Columbia University has a large collection of books, but I have not found a single book on the so-called moderator theory.Except for the biographies of celebrities, there is only one book called "The Art of Interview" with some theoretical color.As a big TV country and the birthplace of the word host, I was surprised by this phenomenon at first. When I asked the instructor, he asked: "The art of host? I have never heard such a statement." I remember that I have read many articles and books on the theory of hosts in China in the past, and I have also been interviewed by people who are interested in writing books, and talked about the experience and understanding of TV hosts. The concept of "the art of host" appeared majestically in the TV critic circle, and became the ideal pursuit of many young people who aspire to be TV hosts.

But now, for the first time, I have fundamental doubts about this formulation. Is there an art to hosting? If no, then how to explain the requirements for the host such as sense of camera, sense of language, adjustment of on-site atmosphere, grasp of personal emotions, etc.?And how to explain the charm of outstanding presenters around the world?If there is no art to speak of, wouldn't the profession of TV presenter seem shaky? slow.I seem to have found a problem: Is there a strict definition of TV presenter-this fashionable profession at the moment?In other words, does it count as a defined profession?

Let us first go to the United States to see how the TV hosts there are produced.In the 1940s and 1950s, in the early days of the development of American television, there were mainly two types of hosts on TV. One was the news host who was a reporter represented by Murrow, and was called "Anchor".Murrow not only became a wartime hero because of his live coverage of the London bombing during World War II, but also became a justice for daring to debate McCarthy face-to-face and revealing the inhuman treatment of foreign laborers on American farms at Thanksgiving. symbol.The second type of host is called "Host", responsible for entertainment programs such as singing and dancing, talking and laughing.Almost all of them were comedians.Some Hollywood and Broadway stars also make guest appearances in these programs from time to time.By the end of the 1950s, games and quiz programs were flourishing, and the hosts appeared with a fair image. Most of them were middle-aged actors with a good social image and a certain level of knowledge.In the 1960s, talk shows appeared, and friendly journalists and humorous actors became the stars of such shows.After the 1970s, there were so many TV programs, and the sources, levels, and roles of the hosts in the programs were also uneven.Some ace programs, such as "Sixty Minutes" and "Twenty, Twenty" still use senior journalists, but they are often only responsible for important news reports, such as presidential elections and bipartisan annual meetings.Younger reporters are in charge of other location reports, and the editors often write the series words and deliver them to them.A large number of news flashes on television are carried by good-looking "young" announcers.The concept of "young" also refers to those who are over thirty years old.Celebrity interview programs highlight the star effect of the host.Facing influential figures in the political and artistic circles, they are neither humble nor overbearing, and even confront each other, asking challenging and sharp questions, and sometimes they do not hesitate to quarrel.Although their manuscripts were drawn up by the creative collective in advance, because of the on-site interviews, there is no room for delay, so these hosts are required to have extraordinary thinking and language skills.As for entertainment programs and talk shows, they are usually purchased by TV stations from private production companies.The hosts of these shows are so diverse that it is difficult to outline, and many of them simply cannot do without the help of live line prompters.It can be said that there is no strictly defined profession of "anchor" in the United States, and almost all TV hosts come from professional backgrounds other than television.

The title of domestic TV host began when Mr. Zhao Zhongxiang presided over the quiz competition for middle school students in the early 1980s, and Ms. Shen Li became the first host with a fixed column - "Serving You".Now, with the exception of newscasters, almost all the faces that appear on TV programs as hosts are dubbed hosts. Probably because our TV is responsible for promoting standard Mandarin, and maybe it is also because we first thought of looking for experienced candidates in the "inner circle". Anyway, a large number of TV hosts are announcers.However, the awards of domestic TV hosts often exclude newscasters, because although they have correct words, bright and pure voices, and accurate delivery, they only read the manuscript.For this reason, many announcers were not convinced: "Aren't most so-called 'hosts' memorizing manuscripts? Is it because they added some little bits and pieces like 'so' and 'um', or deliberately changed the standard If you speak Mandarin like a southernized Mandarin, you are superior to others?"

I think the announcers are justified in their complaints.Merely "translating" rigorous written language into vernacular, or replacing a serious face with a smiling face, does not mean any difference in level; impromptu witty words during the host process, encouraging the audience to clap their hands, etc. There is a big gap between "art". In the past five or six years, another major source of TV hosts has been college students.They are young and lively, without too many rules and regulations, and they are youthful, articulate, and their screen images are pleasing.It is not difficult for us to find such a rule. From the national level to the provincial and municipal level, to the TV stations in towns, factories and mines, there are generally more female hosts than males, and among them, young female hosts under the age of 30 are the most active.And those hostesses who are over 30 years old almost all hope to dress themselves in a young and fashionable way. Their biggest distress is to face the challenges of young colleagues who have no wrinkles on their faces.Does this tell us: From the TV station to the audience, "image" is the primary criterion for evaluating a host.Some people even said: "An actress can still play an old lady when she is old. What is there to look like when a hostess is over forty?" Far more time is spent doing makeup than on the show.

Let’s take a look at some of the commonly used vocabulary for evaluating hosts in China: "elegant and generous", "dignified and beautiful", "kind and gentle", "simple and unpretentious", etc., almost all describe appearance and temperament.It is no wonder that in various interviews with hosts, such a question often appears: "What do you think is the difference between a host and an actor?" Asking this question itself shows that in the minds of ordinary people, there is not much difference between a host and an actor, and it all depends on the image anyway. for dinner.

I personally think that even if the blurred line between host and actor is clarified, TV hosting alone cannot be called "art".This is determined by the content of its work.The job of most TV hosts is to play a connecting role in the program. There are not many programs centered on the host, and the qualifications and professional quality of most current hosts are not enough to undertake the task of leading the program.Therefore, the host's main job is to translate the lines into his own language based on the script provided by the director, and say it in a way that the audience prefers.With the continuous acceleration of the TV rhythm, each paragraph of the host's words in front of the camera ranges from fifteen seconds to one and a half minutes.The short time, the small capacity, and the large interval make it impossible for language to expand in depth and breadth.All these seem to be doomed that host language is unlikely to become a profound art. Nowadays, there are quite a few so-called "host training classes", which teach broadcast makeup, impromptu speeches, interviews and so on.I don't think so.In my opinion, "television program" is defined by a broadcast medium—television, and the concept of "television host" has completely different meanings because of different TV programs.Since there is no simple and uniform "television art", there is no such thing as the so-called "host art".Just as you cannot compare a TV drama director with a news program director horizontally, a variety show host can hardly be compared with a news anchor at all.Television is just a carrier, nothing to do with the content.Its role is closer to newspapers and magazines than to movies.Has anyone ever heard someone say "newspaper art" or "magazine reporter art"? The concept of "hosting art" is vague in that it can be broken down into a number of categories with few connections.For example, the art of a news host can often be summed up as the art of interviewing; the host of a variety show or game show may need some performance training, especially training in comedy performances, because an active atmosphere often requires the host's language, facial expressions, etc. Dramatization requires a humorous temperament; the professional knowledge of sports program hosts is the main content of its "art"; children's program hosts must have basic training in pedagogy and child psychology, etc. If there is a rule to be found between the success of different programs and the host, I think it is the charm of personality.If Mr. Zhao Zhongxiang only masters a lot of knowledge about tourism, animals and plants, but does not have a heart that loves nature and is good at understanding life, then the columns he hosts such as "Zhengda Variety Show" and "Human and Nature" can only be regarded as "scientific" at best. It is just a lecture hall for world knowledge or biology class, what charm is there?If Cronkite did not have the courage to take the risk of bullets and the responsibility of telling the truth, how could he have clearly expressed his anti-war stance at the critical moment of the Vietnam War without shirking or avoiding it?However, having said that, such a quality depends entirely on one's own practice, which is "kung fu is outside the auspices".Therefore, the pursuit of a unified "hosting art" that does not actually exist can only lead to the crafting of TV hosting; the pursuit of a panacea-like technical proficiency can only lead young people who have the qualities of success astray . And how easy it is to be complacent about the false "success" and "authority" brought about by the television screen!This often makes the host have blind arrogance. With the maturity of Chinese TV, the requirements for hosts are bound to become more and more professional.The "camera sense" that can be obtained with a little training is no longer mysterious. The evaluation criteria for the host will be more on the host's self-cultivation quality and the compatibility of the program, and a large number of news special programs will be used directly. Journalists act as hosts (now many TV stations have begun to do this), social programs will invite some experts who are good at expressing into the studio, the age of the host team itself will tend to mature, and the gender distribution will be more balanced .It will be difficult for us to trust a face that is too young to analyze the situation in the Middle East, and it will be difficult to tolerate an empty mind teaching the audience, no matter how photogenic they are. In my opinion, a TV host can let go of some bluff pride only when he realizes that hosting is artless, and can find his own value and form his own style in the true integration with the program.